Machine for manufacturing peat into blocks for fuel.



No. 7555674. PATENTED MAR. 29,1904.

M R. A. KELLOND & J. C. MORRISON. MACHINE FOR MANUFACTURING PEAT INTO BLOCKS FOR FUEL! APPLICATION FILED MAY 15, 1903.

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-No. 755,674. PATENTED MAR." 29, 1904.

v R. A. KELLOND & J. c. MORRISON. MACHINE FOR MANUFACTURING PEAT INTO BLOCKS FORVFUEL."

APPLICATION FILED MAY 15, 1903.

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Tm: norms PETERS ca. moTo-u mo WASHINGTON, 0 c4 No. 755,674. PATENTED MAR. 29, 1904. R. A. KELLOND & J. 0. MORRISON.

MACHINE FOR MANUFACTURING PBAT INTO BLOCKS FOR FUEL.

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No. 755.674. PATENTED MAR.'29,1904.

- R. A. KELLOND .& J. 0. MORRISON. MACHINE FOR'MANUPAGTURING PBAT INTO BLOCKS FOR FUEL.

I APPLICATION FILED MAY 15, 1903.

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UNITED ST TES Patented March 29, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT A. KELLOND AND JOHN C. MORRISON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

MACHINE FOR MANUFACTURING PEAT INTO BLOOKS FOR FUEL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 755,674, dated March 29, 1904.

Application filed May 15, 1903. Serial No. 157,228. (No model.)

To all whom it bury concern: I Be it known that we, ROBERT ARTHUR KEL- LoND, a subject of the King of Great Britain,

and JOHN CA PBELL MORRISON, a citizen of the United States, both residents of the city-of Chicago, Cook county, and State of Illinois, have jointly invented new and useful Improvements in Machines for Manufacturing Peat into Blocks for Fuel, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to presses or machines :for briqueting peat and other fibrous or partlyfibrous materials, more especially those in which the density or textureof the different charges or of the body of material may vary.

The more particular object of the invention is to construct a simple and comparatively inexpensive press or machine for the production of what is now known in the art as the seared or waterproof block or briquet of peat fuel, invented by Robert A. Kellond and set forth in United States Patents Nos; 713, 110 and 715,271, the last steps or operations of the method therein described being the compression and searing or waterproofing of the peat blocks or briquets. Briefly speaking, the present improvements embody instrumentalities forfeeding and controlling the raw material; for compressing a succession of charges thereof into hard dense blocks or briquets, and for impartingto their entire surfaces a coating, envelop, or crust of; combined carbonaceous and tarry matter 1nherent of the material. Certain supplementary devices for assisting the discharge of and for conveying the blocks or briquets and other detailsand combinations of mechanism are:

also included in our invention, all as will be hereinafter particularly described, and set forth in the appended claims.

For full comprehension ofthe above reference must be had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which similar reference characters indicate like partsin the several figures.

In said drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of a double machine, showing the base of the hopperfand part of the searing device in section and, with one set of the cut-off operating Fig. 2 is a side elevation with driving-pulley removed. Fig. 3 is a 1011- gitudinal sectional elevation taken on the line a; 00, Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional elevation taken on the line y Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a rear end view, partly broken away.

A represents the bed-frame of suitable contour and strength; B, the driving-shaft,'prop erly journaled therein and having pulley b mounted thereon.

C is the main or eccentric shaft, journaled instandards c 0, strongly bolted to the frame.

This shaft carries a gear 0, which intermeshes with a pinion I), mounted upon the driving.- shaft. These shafts are provided with heavy balance wheels, (marked 6 and c respectively.)

The above driving instrumentalities are located toward what we may. call the front end of the machine; but their nature, location, and precisetarrangement are immaterial to the powdered peat toward the dies through the,

two branches H, (indicated in the drawings,) we will for greater clearness describe only one of the above-named units in detail and then set forth a device which may receive and sear the flat surfaces or ends of thebriquets coming from both sets of forming devices.

Upon the main shaft O are properly mounted and equally set two eccentrics 7 7,-pivotally connected by rods 8 8 and a pin 9 with a crosshead 10, said pin 9 also passing through the upper end of a slipper 11, which works in proper guides l2,firmly connected to the upper face of the bed-frame A. In the compressing unit now being described there are three parallel plungers or male dies 13, (although this number may be increased or lessened,)

which are rigidly connected to the cross-head and extend therefrom horizontally into properly bushed and lubricated guideways 14 and work across the lower end of the throat h of the branch hopper H into a corresponding number of alined open-ended female dies 15, formed in a solid die-block 16. The guideways 14 and female dies 15 are formed, preferably, in one casting, which is firmly bolted or otherwise secured to the bed-frame A. As it is intended to keepthese female dies cool at all times, water-spaces 17 are formed in the die-block 16, through which a circulation of cold water may be maintained around the dies. (The pipe connections therefor are not shown, as they may be arranged in any convenient manner.

Alined with the female dies 15 are an equal number of guideways 18, preferably open at the top, although they may be closed by a movable cover 19, as shown in Fig. 3, if desired, which guid'eways lead to passages or tubes 20, (also in the same alinem-ent and of similar cross section to the female -dies,) formed in what we term a searing-block 21, fastened to the bed-frame A preferably in the same way as the die-block 16 and situated at such a distance from the latter as to prevent the transmission of heat from the searingblock to the die-block. This is necessary, inasmuch as we form chambers 22 (or a continuous jacket, if found more desirable) around the passages or tubes 20, whereby steam, dryheated air, or similar heating medium may be applied thereto in order to maintain same at a high temperature for the purpose of searing the peripheries of the blocks or briquets formed in and received from the female dies and sears their flat sides we will now refer in detail to the preferred devices whereby the feed of material from the hopper is automatically controlled and the different charges held down at the throat h in front of the plungers 13 and also'the devices whereby .volving therewith, said disk having formed 1n one face a cam-groove 23 and upon the other face a raised or projecting sinuouslyshaped narrow cam 24, which latter acts supplementarily to a larger cam 25, either cast in one with the disk 22,which it immediately adjoins, or keyed separately upon the shaft C, these cams 24 and 25 being shown in Fig. 1 and by dotted lines in Fig. 3. The camgroove 23 in the disk receives a pin (or roller) 26, projecting from the side of a curved arm 27 preferably slotted, as at 28, to loosely embrace the shaft C, as seen clearly in Fig. 3, the other extremity of this arm 27 having a boss 29 through which passes a pin 30, the ends of which project a considerable distance at each side of said boss, so as to find lodg- 'ment in curved ways or slots 31, formed in v brackets 32, carried by the bed-frame A. The

pin 30 also passes loosely through the shorter ends or lugs of a double-forked frame 33, the longer ends of which are curved outward and extended to rigid connection with a plate 34, which serves as a cut-off for each charge of the powdered peat by entering the throat h of the branch hopper H through an aperture h in one of its walls. This aperture extends laterally for the whole wid th of the hopper-throat and is considerably wider vertically than is necessary for the mere entrance of the plate 34, so as to permit of its having a packingdown effect upon the charge of material thus cut off by entering at the top of the aperture h and moving down therein until it assumes a slanting position when resting upon the bottom edge of the aperture, as seen in Fig. 3, this motion being given to it as will be presently described. To prevent the escape of the powdered material through the aperature /L','one or more spring-controlled shutters or equivalent means may be employed to follow the plate 34 in its movement. We have shown one shutter for each hopper; but the shutters may be dispensed with, and the small amount of material liable to escape may be caught by a sheet-metal guard-trough or the like, and thus prevented from clogging the operative parts of the machine.

While the set of the eccentrics 7 7 upon the shaft C is such that a half-revolution of the latter is required to give the plungers or male dies 13 either their forward or backward stroke, the feed cut-off just described requires only one-quarter of a revolution to project the plate 34 either backward or forward, the

remaining half-revolution taking place while said plate is acting as a combined cut-0H and packing medium within the hopper. Now in order to retract said plate and raise it to the top of the aperture it without requiring it to raise the whole load of material impacting its upper face the plate 34 is retracted and gradually raised through the body of material by a slanting movement and again inserted, asbefore premised, preferably by the "coa'ction with the arm 27, its .pin 30, and the curved ways in the brackets 32 of a supplementary arm or lever 36 in rigid connection at one end with a portion of the double-forked frame 33 and having its free end riding upon the periphery of the cam 25. Near this free end (which may also be spring-pressed, if desired) the supplementary arm or lever 36 is provided with a sidewise-projecting pin 37 so that as the lower side of the cam 25 is brought around by the revolution of the shaft C the inner face of the sinuously-shaped cam 24 engages the pin 37 and draws and holds the end of the lever 36 into close contact with the lower side of the cam 25 for a quarter-revolution of the shaft or during the time occupied by the pin or roller 26 on the arm 27 in passing from the concentric portion of the cam-groove 23 in the disk 22 into and around the eccentric portion of same.

The above cut-off and forced-feed arrangement is simply a preferred form described and illustrated to define our principle and contention that where there is a cross-feed from vertical to horizontal in a press of this construction means must be employed to pack and hold the material down in front of the plunger as it progresses into the mold in order to insure the formation of a perfect block or briquet. This has heretofore been absent in horizontal ram-presses so far as we are aware, and the blocks produced have invariably been of loose formation upon their upper sides or edges. We may employ other means than those describedfor the same purpose.

Tie-rods 38 (three of which are shown clearly in Fig. 1) are preferably employed between the searing and die blocks and the supports of the main shaft to take up the strain and insure perfect rigidity. These have nuts at their ends whereby adjustment may be had;

i but other means may be and should ordinarily be employed whereby the blocks carrying the female dies and the searing-tubes may be adj usted longitudinally upon the bed-frame separately or in conjunction both to regulate the exact length of stroke of the plungers and to vary the relative length, if necessary, of the dies and tubes. Alsoadjusting devices may ,be employed to regulate the extent of feed at the throat of the hopper; but as these depend simply upon the-skill of the constructing engineer they need no description here;

The device we prefer to employ when such may be necessary for" clearing or dislodging the individual blocks or briquets (from the columns formed when they temporarily adhere) as they issue from the searing-tubes 20 consists of a bar 39, (spring-controlled, if required,) extending across the rear of the searing-block 21 normally a slight distance above the tubes, to the ends of which bar 39 are connected link-bars 40,each extending forward clear of the searing and die blocks to a pivotal support 4l,sustained by the side of the dieblock 16 or by any suitable brackets, and there each connected to a short arm 42, carrying a socket for a spring-pin 43, which projects slightly below the socket, so as to be tripped and caught by a spring-latch 44, one on each side, as seen in Figs. 1 and 2, said latches being carried by a cross-bar 45, bolted to the cross-head 10. 7

Having now described one complete unit or set of devices for driving, controlling the feed, compressingpartially searing, and dislodging or clearing the blocks or briquets and premising that the other unit or set of these devices in our double machine (as illustrated) are of precisely the same construction and are op.

erated reciprocally from the same source of power, we will proceed to describe a device which is adapted to sear the flat ends or sides of the blocks or briquets so far formed and partially seared by the foregoing apparatus as they come from both of its units.

Suitably attached to the rear faces of the two searing-blocks 21 and of sufficient length to amply embrace the space between the outermost of each of the two sets of searing-tubes 20 is a trough 46, inclined from each end toward the center, where the two branches thus formed merge into a spout 47 which is twisted so as to afford a conduit or channel at right angles to that afforded by the double-inclined trough 46, said spout being curved outward into the path of a series of buckets 48, carried by an endless chain or band 48. running over pulleys 49 and 50,-arranged,preferably, in vertical alinement upon shafts 51 and 52, respectively, which latter are suitably supported in the framing. The extremity of the spout is cut away at the top and bottom, as at 48, and its sides extend close to the endless band or chain, thus inclosing the ends of the buckets, while permitting same to pass freely. Y The shaft 52 is provided atiits ends with sprockets 53 and 54, that marked 53 being driven by a sprocket-chain 55 from a sprocket on the driving-shaft B, as seen in Fig. 2, or from any other suitable source, and the sprocket 54 serving, by means of a chain 55, to drive another sprocket 56, mounted on a short horizontal shaft 57, journaled in standards 58, secured to the bed-frame A. Below the shaft 57 and journaled in the same standards are two shafts 59 in the same horizontal alinement, formed hollow for the admission of steam from standpipes 60, which have connections (not shown) with any steam source. These hollow shafts 59 have suitable end journals 61, properly packed to permit them to revolve while continually receiving steam, and theshafts. arethe fiat ends or sides of,the blocks or briquets as they are carried up and around by the buckets 47, which, with their carrier, are designed by the means already described to travel between the faces of said heated searing-disks 62 in a direction opposite to that in which the disks themselves revolve. The revolution of the disks 62 is effected by gears 63 and 64, intermeshing with each other and mounted upon the shafts 57 and 59, respectively, as shown clearly in Figs. 1 and 2, one of each pair of said gears not appearing in the plan View Fig. 1. Sufiicient endwise play may, if desired, be allowed to one or both of the hollow shafts 59 against the resistance of a coiled spring (shown in Fig. 1) as to keep the searing-disks 62 up to their work and at the same time yield to accommodate blocks or briquets of slightly-differing lengths.

The operation of the machine as above described will be fairly understood from the foregoing when read in connection with the drawings; but we may further explain the same briefly as follows: The branch hoppers H are kept full at all times with raw material, which in the case of peat has been dried and powdered to the necessary degrees. Before starting the machine in order to present the necessary resistance to the first charges resistance-blocks of wood or other suitable material or blocks of peat previously formed are first placed within the mouths of the several female dies 15 in the die-block 16, and the driving. power is applied so that the eccentrics 7 7 upon the main shaft C, acting through the eccentric-rods 8 and cross-heads 10, serve to reciprocate the two sets of plungers or male dies 13 forward and back through their guideways 14 across the lower ends of the hopper-throats and for the necessary distance into the forming-tubes or female dies 15, Fig. 4, to compress the powdered material into blocks or briquets, the first in each die being thus formed against the resistance-block previously placed therein and the subsequent blocks or briquets against the yielding resistance offered by those already formed within the female dies, the column thus formed progressing in the dies at each stroke. The first resistance-blocks when they are of other material may be removed at the open top sides of the intermediate passage-ways 18 or at the trough 46, or they may go through the whole searing-device without objection. Previous to the progress of the plungers across the hopper-throats the forced feed or packingdown device will have come into operative position and a comparatively solid charge of material will have been cut off by the plates 34 and held at the entrance of the female dies through the action of the double-forked frame 34, curved arm 27, acting with its pin 26 in conjunction with the cam-groove 23 in the disk 22, and the slanting movement having been given to the cut-off plate 34 through the supplementary arm 36, its pin 37, the sinuously-shaped cam 24, the large cam 25, the pin 30, and curved bearings 31, as will have been already understood from our previous description. The raw material is dry and cool in the hoppers H, and the formingtubes or female dies being' also kept as free as possible from frictional heat by the cold water circulating in the water-spaces 17 ,this part of the operation may properly be termed cold-dry compression. The columns of formed blocks or briquets now progress across the ways 18 into the searing-tubes in the block 21, which, as before stated, are of slightly greater size in cross-section to allow of expansion of the blocks or briquets, and this searing block 21 being kept at a comparatively high temperature by the steam admitted to the chambers 22 or in any other preferred manner the peripheries of the formed blocks or briquets are seared by the combined action of heat and friction, and the fibers at the surfaces are broken and partially carbonized, so as to liberate the inherent tarry and oily matters and impart the waterproof quality, as explained in the patents already referred to. Now as the blocks or briquets thus formed and partially seared issue one at a time from each of the multiple tubes they are dislodged from any temp'orary adhesion to the several columns by the downward strokes of the cross-bars 39, carried by the side link bars 40, which latter are operated by the spring-latch 44, (carried on the ends of the cross-bar 45, supported by and moving with the cross-heads 10,) acting upon the springpins 43, it being seen that upon the forward movement of the cross-heads 10 the springlatches 44 will ride over the spring-pins 43 and snap behind them. Then as the cross-heads recede the latches 44, engaging the pins 43, will so move the levers 42 and 40 as to depress the free ends of the latter, which carry the bars 39, and cause these bars to strike thebriquets from above, and thus dislodge them. The continued recession of the cross-heads 10 will still further actuate the bell-crank formed by the levers 42 and 40, and aidedv by the resilience of the spring-latches 44 and the yielding of the spring-pins 43 will cause these latches and pins to disengage and resume their normal positions ready for another operation as the crossheads again move forward, as will be readily understood by reference to Figs. 1 and 2. The cylindrical blocks or briquets fall down into the inclined trough 46 and roll toward the center, where they enter the twisted spout 47, which turns them in a direction at right angles to their first position and allows them to be caught up one by one by the buckets 48 I and their flat ends thus presented to and brought under the combined heating and frietional action of the oppositely-revolving searing-disks 62, which operation completes the searing process. The blocks or briquets thus formed and completely seared and rendered waterproof are discharged from the buckets as their carrier takes them over the pulley 50 the essential principles or sacrificing the advantages of our invention.

What we claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is as follows:

1. In a machine for manufacturing peat fuel, the combination with meansmaintained in a cool conditionfor compressing the raw material into a succession of blocks or briquets one upon another, of meansmaintained at a higher temperaturefor imparting to the entire surfaces of such blocks or briquets after the formation thereof a coating, envelop, or crust or carbonaceous and tarry or oily natural constituents of the peat, for the purpose set forth.

2. In a machine for manufacturing peat fuel, the combination with a suitable feed for the raw material, a plunger,-and a cool formingtube or die alined with and adapted to receive such plunger, such device bei'ngso arranged and operated that a block or briquet may be formed in such forming-tube or die, of heated instrumentalities receiving the fullyformed block or briquet from such formingtube or die for searing the sides and ends of the block or briquet.

3. In a machine for manufacturing peat fuel into blocks or briquets, the combination with a suitable hopper having a gravity-feed for the raw material, and with suitable driving mechanism, of a plurality of horizontallydisposed plungers or male dies,parallel to each other, asimilar plurality of cool open-ended forming-tubes-or female dies in alinement with said plungers or male dies and in communication with the hopper, and a corresponding plurality of alined heated tubes or passage-ways, in which the peripheries of the blocks or briquets are seared, and instrumentalities beyond the heated tubes, for catching, searing the flat ends or sides and finally discharging the finished blocks or briquets, substantially as set forth.

4. In a machine for manufacturing peat fuel, the combination with a'horizontally-arranged forming-tube or female die, a plunger or male die in alinement therewith, means for operating said plunger or male die to compress the raw material within such forming-tube or female die, and with a verticallyarranged feed-hopper, of a plate adapted to enter and pass across the throat of said hopper and through the material contained therein previous to the plunger or male die passing into the forming-tube or female die, and mechanism operated from a moving part of the machine and serving to move said plate inand out of the hopper-throat in such manner that it'will first cut off the charge of ma terial and then have a downward movement to condense such charge between the die members, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

5. In a machine for manufacturing peat fuel, the combination with a horizontally-arranged forming-tube or female die, a plunger or male die in alinement therewith, and a revoluble eccentric shaft for operating said plunger or male die to compress materials as peatfiwithin such forming-tube or female die, of a vertically-arranged feed-hopper, the lower part or throat of which is provided with a lateral opening in one of its walls, a plate adapted to enter the hopper-throat near the top of said opening and pass down through the material ina slanting direction so as to act as a forced feed and to pack down and hold charges of material in position between the die members, cam-andlever mechanism operated from the eccentric shaft for projecting and retracting the plate, and supplementary mechanism connected therewith for imparting the slanting movement thereto, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

6. In a machine for manufacturing briqueted and seared peat fuel, the combination with suitable driving and forming mechan ism, and with heated tubes alined with and receiving the briquets from the forming mechanism and adapted to sear the peripheries thereof, of a twisted spout receiving the briquets from the heated tubes and directing them into the path of end searing devices, such latter devices consisting of a bucket carrier and two parallel heated disks, adapted to contact with the ends of the blocks taken up by said carrier from said twisted spout, and means for causing the carrier to move in one direction between the disks, and said disks to be revolved in the opposite direction, substantially as set forth. a

7. In a machine for manufacturing peat into blocks for fuel, the combination with suitable driving mechanism including eccentrics,

eccentric-rods, slide and cross head, and with. 

